June 2010

06/18/2010

The latest release of Autotag, version 9, has switched to a new way of tagging in Office. The tags are still the same, but instead of using a 'Field', we have switched to 'Content Controls'. The main reason we did this is because with a content control you can insert charts and images directly into the control, so for certain tags instead of seeing text, you get to see the actual object that will be in the final report.

Another benefit of switching to content controls was that with fields it was possible to delete some of the field text, the nickname of the tag, which in turn would delete some of the tag causing errors on report generation.

I have worked extensively with both types of tags, and personally I like the field tags more. Here are a few reasons why.

1. If you are in a content control it can be hard to exit and get back to editing regular text. I often find myself clicking outside of the content control, only to have the tag builder window open because word counts my clicks as a double click on the content control. This is because to exit a content control you have to click the mouse into an area that has regular text, if you click off to the side of the page it will not exit. The only surefire way around this is to use the arrow keys.

2. No intuitive way to delete tags. If you try to delete the content control it just deletes the nickname text, to fully delete the tag you have to hit the delete button.

3. Fields are easier to copy paste since they are easier to select.

4. Content controls are harder to select and move around

In a perfect world I would have chart tags, and import tags, still be content controls, but out tags and all the other ones should be fields.

Any feedback that you have going either way would be greatly appreciated because the company will be looking at the comments of this post to make a decision as to whether or not we will change the way tags work in autotag. But if you like the way they are now, then also please tell us that in the comments section.

06/15/2010

Yes I know that you cannot pre-order white iPhones, but that does not mean they wont have them at launch. I went to my local apple store today and the guy told me that just because you cant pre-order doesn't mean they wont be available at launch *wink*, he also told me that if i pre-order a black one and they have white ones in stock at they can give me a white one instead. Now lets talk about why apple would decide not to do pre-orders on the white iPhone 4.

Why Apple isnt allowing pre-orders on white iphone 4's

1. Apple sells like 4x as many black iPhones as white ones. So even under normal conditions they aren't going to have as many white ones as black ones.

2. For some reason this year either demand for white iPhones is unexpectingly high or the supply is low. Apple doesn't want people to pre-order something, and then find out that they are not available when they get to the store, it just leaves a bad taste in people mouth.

3. The pre-order site cannot link into real-time stock numbers from local stores (since the local stores don't even know how many they have) which means the pre-order menu cannot turn off/on the ability to order a white iPhone as availability changes. So instead of just hoping the number of pre-orders is less than availability, they are just disabling the feature all together to avoid getting peoples hopes up.

2. Steve Jobs specifically said that they will be available in two colors, not that you can get black now, white later. He wouldnt have announced it the way he did if this was the case.

3. The ability to pre-order is not the same as the ability to buy on launch day, these are two totally separate purchasing events. A pre-order is the ability to have exactly what you wanted on launch day, and it lets die-hard fans avoid the uncertainty of having the phone they want day 1. The direct link between launch day availability and pre-order availability has yet to be solidified.

4. We have already seen all the spare parts for the white phone surface from china, so they definitely have the parts to make the white ones.

5. Unlike the iPad WiFi vs 3G model, the iPhone 4 White and Black are the same freeking hardware, and if chinese spare parts companies are already selling them, then there is certainly no shortage of white iPhone parts.

6. We know white iPhones exist, we saw them at WWDC. They might as well sell what they've got because the demand is probably going to outstrip supply and there is no point in sitting on a stash of white iPhones just because they dont have enough for everyone, that doesnt make any sense. They will sell every last iPhone they can.

This is by far the fastest easiest way to preorder, within 3 minutes of downloading it, I already had mine pre-ordered with a confirmation email with my appointment time (7:00 am, Boulder CO).

Step 2: Be in the front of the pre-order line.

So the way launch day works is there will be two lines, one for people with pre-orders and one for ppl without. The one for pre-order will usually be pretty long, but apple employees told me that it moves alot faster. So what I plan on doing is scoping out the line wednesday evening to see if it will be neccessary for me to camp out or not. If its not too bad I plan on just rolling up a couple hours early and waiting till my appointment (7:00am). Note that my appointment time is a good 3 hours before they open the doors to 'regular' customers, which ensures that someone without a pre-order cant just come in a swoop up my darned white iPhone 4 !

Step 3: Pray to your god of choice that white will be available

Worst Case Scenario - They actually do not have white iPhones

I have already decided I want a White 32gb, but there is no way in hell im going to be alive on launch day without a new iPhone 4 no matter what color I have to buy. So, I talked to the Apple employee, he said that there is a 14 day return window for the new iPhone, so worst case scenario you buy the black one, and then in the next few days or week you return it for a white one.

I will make a new post on launch day about the iPhone 4 no matter what color I get, although I will be a little bummed if I do not get white.

06/07/2010

There has already been so much leaked about this, I wont go into too much detail, but 5mp camera w/ flash, 960x640 resolution, front-facing camera, A4 processor, video chat, multitasking, record HD video. Thats most of the known, well substantiated rumors, but im sure that Steve will have a few more tricks up his sleeve, cant wait to see what those are.

iPad OS 4.0

This was not part of the OS 4.0 press conference a few months ago, so its times that it gets some press here at WWDC.

xCode 4.0

This one seems to fall right inline with the new iPhone release. If the new iPhone is truly 960x640 then there will be 3 device resolutions developers will have to deal with. I suspect that some tools for resolution independence will be included so devs dont have to make the same app 3 times. If you throw in a Apple TV to the mix, that alone could add 2-3 more resolutions that devs need to worry about.

Could Apple add some support for HTML5 in xCode, or in some other tool. If they are serious about HTML5 they dont just want everyone using Adobe's Dreamweaver.

Safari 5

There are alot of rumors on this already, most of which seem pretty reasonable. I dont really have much to add, except that I think its pretty plausible to atleast demo an update to Safari at the WWDC. The browser is more and more becoming the platform of the future. Google clearly believes this to be true, since they doubled down on the browser as a platform at Google IO.

Bing

Bing will be a search option on the iPhone, but not the default.

Apple TV

Lots of big rumors were flying around, but It they have seemed to die down, mostly in part due to the answers Steve Jobs gave at the D8 conference. When asked about Apple TV he mainly talked about how hard it is to sell set top boxes to consumers, when cable companies give them away for free. If Steve truly believes this than why would he try to sell a set top box ? Good question, so this one is probably unlikely. But, it is still possible, and it seems a necessary move to compete with google.

iLife 2010

They are gonna atleast talk about this, they do every year. It would be nice to see some more cloud integration, maybe tie it in more with mobile me ? We'll see

Apple Magic Trackpad

these rumors just leaked today, but it seems Apple is set to announce a giant trackpad with handwriting recognition. Its bluetooth which means it would be usable by desktops, laptops, iPads, and even iPhones. This is something ive been hoping for, and im glad that i waited on getting a magic mouse because a trackpad is really what i would rather have.

Streaming iTunes

this one seems pretty likely, all of the iTunes store has recently gone online for preview/purchase, but not streaming. I think apple will close the gap on that today. Expect integration into existing first party apps from apple (iPod, iTunes).

Free MobileMe

Apple needs to do this, even if its just a stripped down version of premium. Apple just needs to have a presence on the cloud with some free services. MSFT and google both have extensive online offerings all available free. We all know about google, but MSFT has some very serious offerings as well - online office, sky drive 25gb storage, free email, calender, etc...

Mac Pro Upgrade

this one is due for an upgrade. It might not be a 'major announcement' but the conference is for devs, and the Mac Pro is really meant for devs and high end technical people so it would make sense to announce it in the keynote just to get a huge round of applause from all the attendees.

Macbook Air Upgrade

Put a 3g sim in there, lower the price, maybe upgrade the specs, and then you've got a computer that moves from a niche marketplace, to one that is a little more mainstream.